Kelley Keller, Author at Innovation to Profits

May 30, 2015 By Kelley Keller Leave a Comment

America’s 50 Richest Self-Made Women Includes Innovators and Entrepreneurs

money fortune wealth

Forbes released its first list of America’s 50 richest self-made women this week, and it’s filled with innovators. At the top of the list is Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of blood testing company Theranos, with a net worth of $4.5 billion. Holmes is also the youngest woman on the list and the youngest female billionaire in the world at 31 years of age.

To be considered for the list, women had to have a minimum net worth of $250 and they had to make a substantial portion of that wealth themselves. The 50 women who made the 2015 list are corporate executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and authors.

Most importantly, these women are innovators. They founded companies, developed new technologies, and solved people’s problems with their innovation. These women are behind powerful brands like Little Caesars, DKNY, Panda Express, Spanx, Lynda.com, Forever 21, American Girl Dolls, and Proactiv.

Let’s take a closer look at how these innovative women made their fortunes. [Read more…]

March 24, 2015 By Kelley Keller Leave a Comment

Copyright Infringement or Fair Use for the House Judiciary Committee?

US Capitol

Who knew that 1, 2,or 3 seconds of video, taken out of context, could cause such an issue? Certainly the House Judiciary Committee didn’t. The Committee’s recent press release has caused quite a stir on the Internet given its use of ten animated GIFs.

A GIF (or Graphics Interchange Format), as defined by Webster, is “a computer file format for the compression and storage of digital video images.” Make sense? Most people can probably recognize a GIF better than they can define what it means. To most people, a GIF is a short video clip (usually from a movie or TV show), that has been taken out of context, and used to make a joke.

Until recently, you’ve probably not given a second thought to GIFs, finding the floating cats in space quite humorous, but now the House Judiciary Committee is under fire for using 10 different GIFs from movies and TV shows in their newest press release.

The problem? All of the TV shows and movies are copyrighted by other people (not the House Judiciary Committee). [Read more…]

January 23, 2015 By Kelley Keller Leave a Comment

New USPTO Website to Launch on February 5, 2015

In just two weeks, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will launch a new and improved website. The redesigned USPTO.gov is the culmination of hundreds of user interviews, and it’s just the first step in the USPTO’s plans to improve user experiences on its website.

On February 5, 2015, the redesigned USPTO website will offer improved navigation and a better mobile device experience overall. You can get a sneak peak at the new site design by visiting the USPTO beta site. Starting on February 5th, the beta site design will debut at USPTO.gov. [Read more…]

January 6, 2015 By Kelley Keller Leave a Comment

Trademarks Step-by-Step – New Online Course for Anyone in Business

Whether you’re business is small or large, and whether it’s a startup or well-established, you have valuable intangible assets that should be protected with trademarks.

Your business name, brand names, product names, logos, package designs, slogans, colors, sounds, and more can be federally registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) so only you can exploit them for profit in the marketplace.

You wouldn’t let someone else take your physical assets to sell them for profit, but if you haven’t taken the steps to identify and protect your trademarks, you’re letting other people profit from your intangible assets. Don’t do it anymore!

Take the First Step to Protect Your Innovation and Profits

The first step to making sure only you profit from your innovation is to register your trademarks. You’ll learn everything you need to know about trademarks in the Trademarks Step-by-Step video course from Innovation to Profits.

Your Business is at Risk if You Don’t Register Your Trademarks

If you don’t protect your trademark-able intangible assets, you’re putting your business at risk. Eventually, your profits will fall or they’ll be severely limited.

Imagine what would happen if you learn one day in the future that you have to stop using the brand name you’ve had for years because someone else owns the trademark for it. How much would it cost you to rebrand?

Some of the expenses you’d have to pay out of pocket include: [Read more…]

December 18, 2014 By Kelley Keller Leave a Comment

Trademark Fees Just Got More Affordable

money profits This week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rule that drops trademark fees for online application and renewal filings. The price reduction is intended to increase the number of electronic application filings, which will undoubtedly lead to savings for the USPTO (similar to how the IRS has been pushing electronic filing of tax returns for the past decade).

2015 Trademark Fee Reductions

The following fee reductions will go into effect on January 17, 2015 for applications submitted through its Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS):

$50 fee reduction for filing a trademark application using the regular TEAS application form (dropping from $325 per class to $275 per class)
$50 fee reduction for a TEAS Plus application (dropping from $275 per class to $225 per class)
$100 fee reduction per class for a TEAS renewal application (dropping from $400 per class to $300 per class)

In addition to these application fee reductions, the fee for a new TEAS RF (the reduced fee category described in Section 2.23 of Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations) for a request to turn an “extension of protection to the United States” under the Madrid Protocol (for international marks) into a U.S. trademark application will be reduced to $50 less than the regular TEAS application fee. [Read more…]